All my life it was there, a little black spot slowly growing in years. Managing my life around that black spot, depression. In 2011 my life was like living in the darkness, and death looked like a sunny place in paradise.

In 2011, after 10 years of running a business in garden and landscape architecture I made a choice, giving up everything i ever known. Where I chose for a life in art, where I chose to manage My depression and not My life around it.A choice for the person I am, the impact I want to leave on others in our fragmented society..

In this choice I made in art my first work was a commisioned artwork. A temporary mural of 70m2 in Emmen the Netherlands

(photo below)

After my first work of art I was invited to join an international art collective. For me this was a creat opportunity to learn, to experience, asking my self questions, reflextion on personal development.

In 2012 the organisation of the Elephant parade in Trier Germany contacted me to be part of this outdoor exhibithion and auction.

The life-size, baby elephant statues raise awareness for need of elephant welfare and conservation, a part of the elephant parade net profits are donated to elephant welfare and conservation projects.

The orange shoaling fishes on the elephant represent the people in our society who are very well connected through social media by facebook, twitter, instagram. And at the same time more and more of these people stand alone in our fragmented society, and we are more divided than ever.

The elephant was one of the works in the series of fragmented society which also includes the commissioned artwork in 2011; the temporary mural where it all started.

But yet I did not find my satisfaction in the way I was living my life, I wanted more, the deeper meaning in life, exploring the world around. And my choice in art in this way was financial not a succes at all.

In 2013 I became homeless due to my choice in art and other choices. I accepted these consequences by living on the streets for more than a year. This was one of the inimitable choices for my family and friends. For me this was the only way to be able to develop myself into the person I am today.

In this my curiosity about and for life also became a search for an objective truth, this was where documentary photography crossed my path in the Jungle (the migrant and refugee camp) of Calais France where I was curios abouth the real story, the objective truth, But what is an objective truth?

In photography the photographer shows what he wants to communicate, we see what he wants us to see. I see this as an oppurtunity to raise awareness, confronting people, let people ask questions about their self, find their individual voice and express it.

Questions yourself, questioning the world around, a way in Self knowledge and identety, essential to realization of aspirations and dreams